Riley House Brighton College

Print description

his architectural illustration of Riley House at Brighton College began with a visit to the building and a desire to capture not only its architecture, but its relationship with the landscape around it.

The work brings together two of my longstanding interests: architecture and botanical illustration. I am fascinated by the structures found in plants—their order, symmetry, repetition and geometry—and by the unexpected relationships they create with architecture. Radial forms, grids, cylinders and repeated patterns appear in both worlds.

I chose the view from the internal courtyard because this is the perspective from which the building is experienced by those who use it. Rather than presenting the architecture in isolation, I wanted to place it within a living environment of plants, insects, birds and changing light.

The plants depicted in the illustration were selected because they thrive in the chalk soils of Sussex, creating a subtle connection with the flint façade of the building. The Saw Thistle is represented through its extraordinary radiating flower heads; the Wild Carrot through its delicate, multiplying radial umbels; and the Ribwort Plantain through its distinctive cylindrical flower spikes.

Colour and atmosphere were also important in the development of the image. I explored different qualities of light and sky, drawing partly on the tradition of artists associated with Sussex, including Eric Ravilious and William Nicholson. Their ability to simplify landscape, architecture and colour while retaining a strong sense of place provided an interesting starting point.

The intention was to create an image that celebrates the architecture while suggesting something broader: spaces for learning that exist within, and have a responsibility towards, the natural environment that surrounds them.

This illustration will form part of a wider series of architectural images for Brighton College, alongside proposed illustrations of the New Performing Arts Centre and the Entrance Gate with Clock.

Print details

To create this print, I begin by making individual drawings in ink, which I then bring together to form the final composition. I scan these original drawings and digitally add colour. The finished design exists solely in digital form and is printed using archival inks on fine art paper. I release the design as a limited-edition print, available in standard ‘A’ sizes, ranging from A0 (84.1 × 118.9 cm) to A4 (21 × 29.7 cm).